1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to portable terminals having a touch screen, and more particularly, to a method and apparatus that manages a list of contents in a portable terminal, expanding or contracting the structure of the list, according to multi-touch signals.
2. Description of the Related Art
As information and communication technology and semiconductor technology have undergone rapid development, a variety of portable terminals having a touch screen have been commonly used. In particular, the touch screen mounted on these portable terminals allows for a multi-touch operation as an optional function. In addition to their inherent functions, such as a voice call and text message transmission and reception, these portable terminals can also provide a variety of functions, such as multi-media communication, wireless Internet communication, short-range wireless communication, and mobile broadcast reception, etc. A variety of multi-media content and applications have also been developed to match the various functions.
Along with the development of various multi-media contents and functions, the capacity and types of lists related to the multi-media have also increased when the function are activated in the portable terminals. Therefore, it is very important to sort and manage the lists of content in order to efficiently use the portable terminals.
However, the conventional system using direction keys or a mouse to sort a variety of lists stored in the portable terminal is cumbersome and time consuming and the user may be required to perform complicated processes to manage the lists of content that is stored in the portable device (terminal).